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The
head of technology development at Intel, Ann Kelleher, first
mentioned the progress during a talk at the SPIE lithography
conference on Tuesday in San Jose.
ASML confirmed Kelleher's remarks were accurate.
Lithography systems use focused light beams to help create the
tiny circuitry of computer chips. ASML's High NA EUV tools,
which are the size of a double decker bus and cost more than
$350 million each, are expected to help enable new generations
of smaller, faster chips.
The first High NA tool in existence is at ASML's laboratory in
Veldhoven, Netherlands and the second is under assembly at an
Intel plant near Hillsboro, Oregon.
Advanced chipmakers including TSMC and Samsung are expected to
adopt the tool in the coming five years, with Intel saying at an
event last week it intends to use the tool in production for its
14A generation of chips.
In Kelleher's talk she said that the Veldhoven machine has seen
the "first light on wafer in resist," meaning the machine has
been used in a test on a silicon wafer that has been treated
with light-sensitive chemicals so that it is ready to receive a
circuit pattern.
An ASML spokesperson said the first light milestone had been
reached "very recently".
(Reporting by Toby Sterling; editing by Jason Neely)
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